This summer could end up being one of the worst on record for Florida’s corals; a scientist at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota says water temperature in the Florida Keys has been so high that conditions over the next month could tip the balance of whether corals experience just a bad bleaching season or a devastating one.

Today Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said the relief well BP is drilling had gotten to a depth of more than sixteen thousand feet and is on target to be functional by August. But high seas could delay the effort to stop the gulf oil gusher by as much as two weeks.

In a press conference today, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the oil spill recovery effort is unprecedented and so getting it right wonât be easy.

As the Governorâs Hurricane Conference draws to a close in Fort Lauderdale, government officials are stressing preparedness ahead of what hurricane experts say will be an especially active hurricane season. Theyâre predicting fifteen named storms in total, eight of those being hurricanes and four of those being major hurricanes. Pinellas County spokesperson Tom Iovino said today that despite inaccurate forecasts in the ...

As a peninsula surrounded by water and prone to extreme storms, Florida is one of the states with the most to lose if sea levels rise to the degree experts predict. With 4500 square miles of land below 5 feet of sea level, any rise in levels will submerge coastal land while increasing the risk of flooding to populations, according to the EPA. Tim Frazer is a coastal hazard specialist at the University of Idaho who presented results on Sarasota Countyâs coastal exposure.

Today at The Tampa Bay Catostrophic Planning Summit, disaster experts from nine counties considered what would happen if the Tampa bay region were hit by a category 5 hurricane as harrowing as Katrina.

If Tampa sustained a category 5 hurricane, experts predict $250 billion in losses to property and infrastructure. Hurricane Phoenix may be a simulation, but Floridaâs vulnerability to the worst effects of such a storm are very real. [The Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council](http://www.tbrp...

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina still haunts America, as many recall the failure of FEMA, the levees, and government response to the disaster. Now other coastal cities like Tampa are learning from the tragedy, and are investigating how to prevent a similar collapse of communication and infrastructure from happening in the future.

Today planning officials from all levels of government met at the Tampa Quorum hotel to explore how the Tampa Bay Region could r...

A panel discussion addressing climate changeâs impacts to Floridaâs coastal ecosystems and strategies to adapt to warmer conditions and rising seas was hosted by the Audubon Society in St. Petersburg on Friday.

Though scientists have reached a consensus over the causes and likely effects of climate change, how to adapt to a warmer world remains fuzzy. Thatâs especially the case in areas where some of the greatest changes will occur, the coast. For many scientists and environmenta...

Last week, the largest private property insurer in Florida, State Farm Insurance, announced it is pulling out of the market, saying the company cannot raise premiums high enough to offset the risks from hurricane.

The final blow was the rejection of a 47 percent homeowners insurance rate increase last month by the stateâs Office of Insurance Regulation.

In response, Sen. Mike Fasano of New Port Richey is proposing two specific pieces of legislation. One bill would be to prevent State ...

Niall Ferguson is a financial historian, and the author of the acclaimed new book, The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World. In the second part of our interview, WMNF asked him about insurance, and what he thinks of the idea for a National Catastrophe Fund, something Florida lawmakers say is the only way to fully address the issue of insurance in the hurricane prone state.